Early education and care: where next for an effective system?

The importance of early childhood education and care, through schools, nurseries and childminders, has increasingly been recognised over the past twenty years as being critical to the future lives of young children and key to supporting parents in the workplace.

Chaired by Eleanor Ireland, Programme Head at the Nuffield Foundation, this webinar explored the role of early childhood education and care, how it has changed over the last twenty years and how it can be improved through changes to policy and practice. Nathan Archer and Carey Oppenheim presented insights from a new evidence review in our Changing face of early childhood series, which draws on research funded by the Foundation, and other key studies, to explore the quality, effectiveness and sustainability of early childhood education and care provision and the extent to which it has narrowed gaps between the most and least advantaged young children.

In addition to providing analysis of a large and complex body of evidence, the review explores gaps in the research agenda, difficult questions and policy priorities. We also heard from June O’Sullivan MBE, Chief Executive at The London Early Years Foundation (LEYF) and Professor the Baroness Alison Wolf.

Our Changing face of early childhood series seeks to generate an informed debate on early childhood based on what the collective evidence tells us. In addition to publishing a series of robust and accessible evidence reviews, we are providing a forum for further engagement through our events programme and additional commentary on our website. 

We value input and feedback on the series as it progresses and the responses we receive will inform the concluding review. Ultimately, we want this series to contribute to significant and lasting change for young children and their families. We are interested to hear your feedback on the questions raised in our series.

This webinar was a Nuffield Foundation event supported by Jacobs Massey.